Welcome To Lake Harmony
by AceM
Summary: After the car accident, Jess stays in Star's Hollow, but soon becomes even more aggressive than before when the hatred against him increases. Luke can't deal with it anymore, but also doesn't want to send him back to Liz, where he could never get the chance to have a decent life. Heavy heartedly he sends him to Lake Harmony, a boot camp, oblivious to their methods of education...


**I _just_ finished Todd Strasser's book _Boot Camp _- a book about teenagers with behavioural problems that get deported to camps where physical abuse is the order of the day. The problem is: most of the teenagers didn't even do anything wrong. Some parents send their pregnant teenage daughter to a boot camp, or their son with whose girlfriend they aren't happy. In the boot camp _Lake Harmony _they don't really care for the reason- they just care for the parent's money. And as long as they get it, they are happy to torture the kids all day long,**  
**be it by letting them run for hours when it's 40 degrees outside or by letting them lie in a room separated from all the other kids for weeks while they get beaten up- of course the parents don't know anything about _that._ **

**And the other problem is: you can only get out when you turn eighteen or when you change for the "better" (means: when you become a brainless zombie). **

**You can't lie to them; you can't just tell them you've changed. They will only believe you when you've _really _changed. But how can you change and realize your mistakes when you haven't even done anything wrong?**

**I thought it would be interesting to throw Jess in one of those Boot Camps**,** in this case, again, Lake Harmony. ****This story is set in season 2, but Jess is sixteen here [Probably some Lit, but not much- sorry, people, this is a pure Jess-story].**

**Disclaimer: Neither do I own Gilmore Girls nor Todd Strasser's **_**Boot Camp.**_

**Warnings: ****v****iolence, probably a few swear words**_**, **_**presumably almost no Literati, maybe a few spoilers for Boot Camp  
**

* * *

Luke Danes wasn't really a patient man, especially around children.  
He was uncomfortable with holding babies in his arms and short tempered when little children messed around in his diner.  
Teenagers were worse. Moody and always hurting, thinking they were alone against the whole world. He was awkward with that, didn't really know how to act when he had to talk to them.

So when his younger sister Liz had called him out of the blue one day from New York, asking him to take care of her sixteen year old son Jess because he _was in trouble_, he was at a matter of course not particularly thrilled.  
But Jess was his nephew, he was family, and when your family _is in trouble _(Luke hadn't asked _what _kind of trouble it was because he had been afraid of the answer) you help them, whether you like children or not. Whether you're a good babysitter or not. Whether you're prepared for taking care of a sixteen year old trouble maker whose father had walked out on him when he was a baby and whose mother was nuts (and probably doing drugs) or not.

When the boy had first arrived in Star's Hollow, looking unhealthily skinny and pale in his green pullover, his baggy pants and the huge duffel bag he carried around his shoulders, Luke had felt a pang of sympathy for him. His nephew's life hadn't been easy, and he knew that.  
Seeing him like this, he thought they could somehow make this work. Maybe he would even be the _cool uncle _with whom Jess would talk whenever he had problems, he would share things with him he would never share with anyone else. Luke would help him. He would make everything better.  
He would make sure that Jess would graduate High School and that he would have a better life. It was a mute promise he made to himself the moment he saw his nephew for the first time in six years.

But the thought that he could somehow _help _Jess was ridiculous. Luke had only needed one or two days with the tacticurn, moody teenager to figure _that _ out.  
His sympathy quickly turned into desperation when he realized that the boy didn't want his help, that he wouldn't accept his help and that Luke himself had no idea how to get through to a person like Jess. The desperation turned into anger when he heard the great news about Jess setting off the fire alarm in his new school. And finally, the anger turned into frustration when he confronted the teenager and only got a "huh" after his rant.

The frustration stayed. It didn't turn into anything else besides even _worse _frustration.  
And added to that frustration, there was this annoying little part in him that cared for his nephew and wanted him to go to school, to be happy, to have a normal life.

If this part hadn't been there, Luke would have sent Jess back to New York a long time ago. And of course there was still the mute promise to help his troubled nephew. No matter what, he wouldn't fail him. He would find a way to get him back on the straight and narrow _somehow. _  
And that _somehow _certainly didn't mean shipping him back to his mother, who couldn't even take care of herself.

Weeks later, however, the frustration _did _turn into something worse. Something you could describe as dismay.  
That was the feeling he got when he suddenly realized that Jess had given _every _single citizen in Star's Hollow a reason to hate him.  
That parents told Jess' classmates to stay away from him and that his classmates agreed with disgusted expressions at the mention of his name. That people in the diner sent him black looks when he helped his uncle out. That even Luke's friend Lorelai Gilmore was always trying her hardest just to bring off a little smile in his presence. That Jess simply didn't care about any of this.

Well, at least he _did _ care for one thing: Rory, Lorelai's daughter.  
She was a smart, innocent girl with an invisible halo shining above her head. She never got into any trouble. She went to school every day and she came home from school to the tick. And instead of causing trouble in the town afterwards she did her homework or learned for her next exam or read two or three books a day or spent the afternoon with Dean, her boyfriend.  
You could describe her as the exact opposite of Jess (except their mutual love for books), so Luke found it inexplicable why she liked hanging around with the town's most hated citizen and self-proclaimed bad boy so much while she was still with Dean.

He didn't complain though. He was sure that Rory would have a good influence on Jess, while Lorelai wasn't happy about it at all, claiming that Jess would have a bad influence on Rory.

But Luke knew that his nephew had definitely fallen for the town princess. He was nice, friendly, _happy_ when he was around Rory, and Luke could see that he wasn't just faking it. He was actually delighted for him.  
Luke was sure everything would turn for the best. Until Jess' principal called him and told him about his nephew's grades.  
Until Luke asked Rory if she could help Jess a little. Until she and Jess drove around the town in her car instead of learning.  
Until they got into a car accident and she fractured her wrist.

Until Lorelai started yelling at Luke, yelling at Jess, and being absolutely furious because her daughter was in the hospital and Jess survived without a scratch.

If it was even possible, the hatred towards Jess increased. Today Luke cursed himself because he hadn't noticed how his nephew, who had tried to cope with the hate by shrinking into himself and becoming therefore even more cynical and sarcastic, was hurting.

How he had written Jess' anger and despair off as aggressive and unapologetic, nonchalant and uncaring while he was actually just defending himself.  
Like any other human being would have Jess had reacted against the imputations and the hatred with even more hatred.  
Had maybe even become depressive- Luke really didn't know and hated himself for that now.  
All he knew then was that Jess got himself even more in trouble after the car accident. He snapped at the customers in the diner, the principal called more and more often, sometimes using the words "fight" and "Jess started it" or "Jess" and "cutting school", even Rory was disassociating herself from him because of his behaviour, and Luke suddenly decided he had enough.

It had taken him almost six months to realize that this whole parenting thing wasn't for him.  
But the mute promise he had made to himself when Jess had arrived in Star's Hollow, looking thin and lost and _abandoned_ like a little puppy, was still caught in his memory. He couldn't send Jess back to Liz. He couldn't let him stay here either.  
Not here, in this town where he hated everybody and where everybody hated him and where he got himself in probably even more trouble than in New York (Luke suddenly understood Liz and her motives to send her only son away so she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore- a very cruel and unfair thought, but it was true).

And then, while Jess was in school (at least he had _said _he would go to school), Luke had actually read a magazine about parenting.  
There wasn't much helpful advice for tacticurn, aggressive teenagers who obviously had a hatred against the whole world and every single inhabitant, or who suddenly became even more tacticurn and more aggressive after a car accident.

But then he saw something that caught his attention.  
_  
Lake Harmony._

A... boot camp? Luke shook his head when he read it, silently laughing at himself.  
Boot camps were just a way to take money from stupid idiots who actually believed that crap would work.  
But then he read about the high success rate. With a few exceptions almost everyone seemed to have a positive opinion about it, and Luke was sure that there were way worse cases than Jess.

But again, he shook off the thought. Jess didn't need a boot camp. They would have to find a different solution.  
Then again- what else could he do?  
Luke sighed heavily and threw the magazine into the trash. The idea of the boot camp, however, remained in his head and didn't go away.  
Would he fail his nephew if he sent him away, like Liz did?

Or would he help him with that? Luke had _promised _himself to make sure Jess changed for the better and had a decent life. What if this was the only way to reach that aim?

Still balancing the pros and cons in his head, he didn't recognize Lorelai at the counter in the diner until she stole his cap.

"What-?!"

"Oh, he's still with us!" She grinned amused as he snatched his cap with an annoyed, jerky move. "You got me worried for a moment, Luke. What were you thinking about?"

Her smile faded when she saw the state Luke was in. Pale, with dark rims under his eyes, and he obviously hadn't shaved in a while. She silently cursed Jess, who was- she was 110 % sure- responsible for this.  
That boy had been nothing but trouble ever since he had arrived in this town. After everything Luke had done for him he was giving the poor man such a hard time. And after the car accident that _he _had caused he had become even more obnoxious- he had absolutely no right to be. _Rory _had been the one who had ended up in the hospital. _She _was the one with the fractured wrist, _she _was the one who was traumatized by this whole event, which was so unfair since the car accident wasn't even her fault.

Concerned she leaned a little forward to Luke and she frowned. "Are you OK?"

Luke sighed again and rubbed his hand tiredly over his left eye.  
"Actually...," he began awkwardly, but then suddenly found it stupid and ridiculous to even think about such a stupid idea like a _boot camp. _He waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Forget it, it's nothing."

"It's about Jess, isn't it?" She interpreted his lack of an answer as a yes and she narrowed her eyes. "What has he done this time?"

"Nothing... yet. But he will. I know he will. Today the principal will call again, if Jess was at school at all." Luke knew that he started babbling again, but he couldn't stop himself- he said all of it without even noticing and before the words could form in his head at all. He saw Lorelai's symphathetic expression and knew it was OK. So he kept talking. "When I don't dream about Jess becoming a pimp or a drug dealer or a... _hustler, _I dream about him landing in prison or... getting mauled by the citizens of Star's Hollow or _murdering _me."

"Whoa, what kinds of dreams are you having? I guess all that healthy food isn't so good for you after all, huh?", Lorelai said, trying to lighten the mood a little, but Luke merely rolled his eyes.

"Good to see that you can laugh at my problems. I really don't know what to do anymore, Lorelai! That boy is driving me crazy! He steals, he gets in fights, he cuts school, he smokes, he drinks, he is insolent and disrespectful, and I really have a hard time accepting that _my _nephew, of all people _my nephew _is probably the most hated citizen of Star's Hollow."

She didn't say anything because she knew there was more.  
She was right.

"Please don't laugh at me," he continued and she frowned again, confused. "I know the idea is ridiculous, I can't believe I'm even _thinking _about it, but... how does a boot camp sound to you?"

He looked at her expectantly, thinking she would burst into laughter because he was stupid enough to think something as simple as a boot camp could really work. But she was actually thinking about it. Genuinly. Probably thinking of all the advantages when he was gone.  
The town didn't have to bear him anymore. He would stay away from her precious daughter and never ever hurt her again.  
And even though boot camps sound like a cliché they could actually help. Maybe Jess would become a different person.

"A boot camp, huh?", she finally said. "How did you hit on that?"

"Well, I... I read a magazine about parenting, OK?"

She cracked up a little at that, but found the situation too serious to make a witty, inappropriate remark like she usually did.

"There I saw this advertisement for a boot camp called Lake Harmony. The success rates are so high... almost every kid that went there was allegedly a whole new person afterwards. I mean... I'm sure there were some kids that were way worse than Jess, and when it worked on them, maybe it will work on him too?"

A strong part in Lorelai yelled _say yes! Say "Send that little bastard away and never let him come back- ever!"  
_But she knew, no matter how much she'd love to see that little hoodlum gone, she couldn't give Luke, who really needed her help, a bad advice for her own selfish reasons. On the other hand- it would be also good for Luke if his nephew was gone, wouldn't it?

"Think about it another day," she finally said. "I mean, it could be a solution, and the only thing that speaks against it are the charges. But Luke... I really don't think it's a stupid idea. It isn't a good one, either, but it may be the only solution. I think... Jess has problems that probably only a boot camp can solve. He's... I don't like him, you know that. Especially after what he did to Rory..."

Luke tried his hardest not to roll his eyes. He didn't want to think about the stupid car accident that had started it all.  
Before he could respond, however, the phone rang.

"Do I get my coffee for free today if I can guess who it is?", Lorelai asked, not quite able to hold her mocking back entirely.

"No!"

"The principal, the principal! It's definitely the principal!"

Again, Luke rolled his eyes, not finding this as funny as his friend, and he picked up the phone nervously, strongly hoping that she wasn't right.

"Luke's?"

"Luke Danes? The guardian of Jess Mariano?"

Disappointment and annoyance washed over him. "Depends. What has he done?"

"Sir, he has been arrested for underage drinking. I have to ask you to come down to the station."


End file.
